Creating an Intellectual and Policy Community Around the Notion of Global Policy

UN, New York,Monday, 28th June 2010

As part of the Global Public Policy Working Group, the United Nations University Office at the UN, New York (UNU-ONY) held an event entitled "Creating an intellectual and policy community around the notion of global policy" with David Held, Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science, London School of Economics.

Until recently, the West has, by large, determined the rules of the game on the global stage. Today the trajectory of change is towards a multipolar world, where different discourses and concepts of governance can markedly clash. At the same time, the policy packages that have largely set the global agenda in recent decades - in economics and security - have been discredited. The Washington Consensus and Washington security doctrines have dug their own graves. Yet we face critical new threats; the old threat was 'the other'; the new threat is shared problems and collective threats such as financial market instability, climate change and the spread of global infectious diseases. David Held will argue that the old way of doing things which allowed state interest to trump collective interests is over. Or, realism is dead, long live cosmopolitanism!

Global Public Policy Working Group: Since one of the mandates of the United Nations University is to address pressing global problems, the UNU-ONY launched a Global Public Policy Working Group to discuss how public policy can become more of a reality at the global level. Keeping in mind what has been achieved at the national and regional levels in terms of public policy, this working group will bring together practitioners and theoreticians on a regular basis to map out the challenges of global public policy for think tanks and schools of public policy. The objective of these events is to address the importance of public policy at the global level, including better coordination, stronger institutional mechanism of compliance, and greater allocation of resources, concerning international security, environment, and development issues. As the current financial crisis shows, a global perspective is also badly needed in the field of international economics. These UNU events are an attempt to find answers to such questions.

Speaker:David Held, Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science, London School of EconomicsGeneral Editor, Global Policy

Moderator:Jean-Marc Coicaud, Director of United Nations University office at the UN, New YorkGlobal Policy Advisory Board Member